Establishment of IPR Court in Taiwan
(posted on our MP&W website) 19 January 2007, 11:41

The establishment of a Taiwanese Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Court is further proceeding. Last year, the Judicial Yuan sent two bills to the Legislative Yuan regarding the setting up of IPR courts in Taiwan: (1) the Act of Organization of the Intellectual Property Rights Court, and (2) the Law of Handling Intellectual Property Cases by IPR Court. On January 9, 2007, the Legislative Yuan passed its third reading of the draft Act of Organization of IPR Court. This means that an IPR court can be set up in March 2007 presumably.

According to the draft, the IP court's jurisdiction shall comprise IPR-related civil litigation, criminal prosecution and administrative litigation.

At present, all IPR-related disputes in Taiwan have to start with administrative litigation procedures before entering into civil or criminal proceedings. This procedure was criticised as too lengthy. It is highly expected that the establishment of the IPR court will remedy this outrage and help IPR-related cases to be resolved faster.